Slow Cooker Ribs with Blueberry BBQ Sauce

Ok, so let me set the scene for you. As I’m writing this it’s a grey rainy Sunday afternoon and we’ve spent the entire day cleaning out our office. We sorted through 10 years of paperwork, emptying out desks, moving furniture and vacuumed and steam cleaned all of the carpets. I have a roast chicken cooking for dinner that is filling the air with the sweet smell of chicken love and right now I have to stare at these photos of sticky, fall-off-the-bone ribs. I pretty much want to eat my screen right now. But since I kind of like my computer and don’t feel like shelling out another $3,000 for a new macbook, I think I’ll refrain for now and just go ahead and just tell you about these ribs quickly so I can go shove that chicken in my face.

For those of you who have the time & patience to grill and smoke your ribs, all the more power to you. But right now that’s just not the case for me. I don’t have the time nor the patience for that so these ribs were cooked using a combination of the oven & slow cooker and I would even dare to say that they could compete against ribs that were slaved over all day.

Whole Foods had some great looking St. Louis style ribs on sale the other day so I picked some up along with this Bone Suckin’ Sauce. You could also make your own BBQ sauce if you’re feeling ambitious but I found that this one had a pretty limited ingredient list and they were all items I could pronounce (SCORE!) so I felt pretty comfortable using it. Don’t worry, the blueberry part will come in later.

As a rib rub, I used my favorite one from Williams Sonoma but you could use your own or a mixture of salt, pepper and spices like paprika, onion & garlic powder, brown sugar & cayenne (for example).

I started out by putting the dry rub on the ribs and cooking them at 400 F for 15 minutes on each side. Then I threw them in the slow cooker with some sliced onions, poured the BBQ sauce on top & set it to cook on low for 8 hours. Before serving I heated up the rest of the sauce with some of the drippings and a pile of fresh blueberries. If you don’t have blueberries you could skip that part but it added a real nice natural sweetness to the sauce as well as great color.

The ribs are fantastic right out of the slow cooker but if you want to give them that nice charred finish, simply throw them back in a 400 F oven for about 5-10 minutes and the edges will get all nicely charred & crispy.

Believe me, this is a recipe you’ll want to keep coming back to. I have another rack of ribs in the fridge ready for a repeat this week, can’t wait!

It’s time to GET YOUR RIB ON!! I’m going to get my chicken on now…

Enjoy!

WHAT MAKES ME HAPPY:

My new desk!

I have been wanting a new desk FOREVER. I work from home so a nice desk is a top priority for me and I’ve been using a cheap Ikea desk forever that has zero drawers or storage. I finally found my dream desk this weekend and it’s going to be delivered later this week, I can’t WAIT! Isn’t she a beauty??

Ingredients

Directions

1.

Preheat oven to 400 F. Cover the ribs with the dry rub, working it in with your fingers and place the ribs on a foil-covered baking pan. Bake the ribs in the oven for 15 minutes each side.

2.

Place the sliced onions in an even layer on the bottom of the slow cooker. Place the ribs on top of the onions and cover with 3/4 of the BBQ sauce. Using a spoon or pastry brush, slather to sauce to coat all sides of the ribs. Cover and set to cook on low for 6-8 hours.

3.

(Before Serving) In a small sauce pan combine remaining BBQ sauce with some of the drippings from the slow cooker and the blueberries. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5-10 minutes until blueberries are soft. Mash them into the sauce using the back of a fork.

4.

(Optional Step) Carefully remove the ribs from the slow cooker, place on a baking sheet and finish off in a 400 F oven for 5-10 minutes until charred.

I was looking for a blueberry rib recipe and believe it or not there are a lot out there but yours looked the best…I made them for a friendly family rib fest we have every year at our blueberry farm in Florida…they were amazing and everyone love the sauce! I made 4 slabs and all were gone and people were begging for more! Thanks again…Amy